THE SIXTH TEACHING
THE MAN OF DISCIPLINE
Lord Krishna
One who does what must be done
without concern for the fruits
is a man of renunciation and discipline,
not one who shuns ritual fire and rites.
1
Know that discipline, Arjuna,
is what men call renunciation;
no man is disciplined
without renouncing willful intent.
2
Action is the means for a sage
who seeks to mature in discipline;
tranquility is the means
for one who is mature in discipline.
3
He is said to be mature in discipline
when he has renounced all intention
and is detached
from sense objects and actions.
4
He should elevate himself by the self,
not degrade himself;
for the self is its own friend
and its own worst foe.
5
The self is the friend of a man
who masters himself through the self,
but for a man without self-mastery,
the self is like an enemy at war.
6
The higher self of a tranquil man
whose self is mastered
is perfectly poised in cold or heat,
joy or suffering, honor or contempt.
7
Self-contented in knowledge and judgment,
his senses subdued, on the summit of existence,
impartial to clay, stone, or gold,
the man of discipline is disciplined.
8
He is set apart by his disinterest
toward comrades, allies, enemies,
neutrals, nonpartisans, foes, friends,
good and even evil men.
9
A man of discipline should always
discipline himself, remain in seclusion,
isolated, his thought and self well controlled,
without possessions or hope.
10
He should fix for himself
a firm seat in a pure place,
neither too high nor too low,
covered in cloth, deerskin, or grass.
11
He should focus his mind and restrain
the activity of his thought and senses;
sitting on that seat, he should practice
discipline for the purification of the self.
12
He should keep his body, head,
and neck aligned, immobile, steady;
he should gaze at the tip of his nose
and not let his glance wander.
13
The self tranquil, his fear dispelled,
firm in his vow of celibacy, his mind restrained,
let him sit with discipline,
his thought fixed on me, intent on me.
14
Disciplining himself,
his mind controlled,
a man of discipline finds peace,
the pure calm that exists in me.
15
Gluttons have no discipline,
nor the man who starves himself,
nor he who sleeps excessively
or suffers wakefulness.
16
When a man disciplines his diet
and diversions, his physical actions,
his sleeping and waking,
discipline destroys his sorrow.
17
When his controlled thought
rests within the self alone,
without craving objects of desire,
he is said to be disciplined.
18
“He does not waver, like a lamp sheltered
from the wind” is the simile recalled
for a man of discipline, restrained in thought
and practicing self-discipline.
19
When his thought ceases,
checked by the exercise of discipline,
he is content within the self,
seeing the self through himself.
20
Absolute joy beyond the senses
can only be grasped by understanding;
when one knows it, he abides there
and never wanders from this reality.
21
Obtaining it, he thinks
there is no greater gain;
abiding there, he is unmoved,
even by deep suffering.
22
Since he knows that discipline
means unbinding the bonds of suffering,
he should practice discipline resolutely,
without despair dulling his reason.
23
He should entirely relinquish
desires aroused by willful intent;
he should entirely control
his senses with his mind.
24
He should gradually become tranquil,
firmly controlling his understanding;
focusing his mind on the self,
he should think nothing.
25
Wherever his faltering mind
unsteadily wanders,
he should restrain it
and bring it under self-control.
26
When his mind is tranquil, perfect joy
comes to the man of discipline;
his passion is calmed, he is without sin,
being one with the infinite spirit.
27
Constantly disciplining himself,
free from sin, the man of discipline
easily achieves perfect joy
in harmony with the infinite spirit.
28
Arming himself with discipline,
seeing everything with an equal eye,
he sees the self in all creatures
and all creatures in the self.
29
He who sees me everywhere
and sees everything in me
will not be lost to me,
and I will not be lost to him.
30
I exist in all creatures,
so the disciplined man devoted to me
grasps the oneness of life;
wherever he is, he is in me.
31
When he sees identity in everything,
whether joy or suffering,
through analogy with the self,
he is deemed a man of pure discipline.
32
Arjuna
You define this discipline
by equanimity, Krishna;
but in my faltering condition,
I see no ground for it.
33
Krishna, the mind is faltering,
violent, strong, and stubborn;
I find it as difficult
to hold as the wind.
34
Lord Krishna
Without doubt, the mind
is unsteady and hard to hold,
but practice and dispassion
can restrain it, Arjuna.
35
In my view, discipline eludes
the unrestrained self,
but if he strives to master himself,
a man has the means to reach it.
36
Arjuna
When a man has faith, but no ascetic will,
and his mind deviates from discipline
before its perfection is achieved,
what way is there for him, Krishna?
37
Doomed by his double failure,
is he not like a cloud split apart,
unsettled, deluded on the path
of the infinite spirit?
38
Krishna, only you can dispel
this doubt of mine completely;
there is no one but you
to dispel this doubt.
39
Lord Krishna
Arjuna, he does not suffer
doom in this world or the next;
any man who acts with honor
cannot go the wrong way, my friend.
40
Fallen in discipline, he reaches
worlds made by his virtue, wherein he dwells
for endless years, until he is reborn
in a house of upright and noble men.
41
Or he is born in a family
of disciplined men;
the kind of birth in the world
that is very hard to win.
42
There he regains a depth
of understanding from his former life
and strives further
to perfection, Arjuna.
43
Carried by the force of his previous practice,
a man who seeks to learn discipline
passes beyond sacred lore
that expresses the infinite spirit in words.
44
The man of discipline, striving
with effort, purified of his sins,
perfected through many births,
finds a higher way.
45
He is deemed superior
to men of penance,
men of knowledge, and men of action;
be a man of discipline, Arjuna!
46
Of all the men of discipline,
the faithful man devoted to me,
with his inner self deep in mine,
I deem most disciplined.
47